Byzantines/Early CtW
CtW guide Despite the loss of your Western Empire four centuries ago, you still control a fairly compact and powerful core consisting of the whole of Greece. Note that although your home territories of Greece do not have any supply centres, you have one — Armenia in Western Asia. In addition, you also have two allies: Venice to the west, and the Russians to the north. Your first move early on should be to occupy Thrace immediately and eliminate the Bulgars once for all. Eliminating the Bulgars means that you get to control their territories, have a bonus card that can be sold for a good amount of tribute, which then can be used to purchase peace, or more territories, but if the Bulgars are killed off, there is a chance Russia will break their alliance with you, and you won't also be able to use the Bulgar army. However, if you suffer substantial losses, the Bulgars will regain independence and will be hostile towards you should they ever become free. You will have to choose carefully. Once you have pocketed Thrace, however, then you will have to decide on your next target of further expansion. Thus far, Byzantium starts of with quite a number of possible enemies, but only two of them are at war with you: Sicily and the Saracens with their caliph in Iraq. Fortunately for you, these two factions don't seem to like one another and it's a matter of time before someone else picks off the Sicilians. Bear in mind however, that being closer to home the Saracens, who are only five regions away from you, could prove to be a deadlier enemy along with their ally the Turks. The Turks currently have assimilated Islamic Iran, and you can count on them having gathered resources to deal with you shortly. You cannot hope to have them as allies during the Castle Age should you choose to take on Jerusalem, as capturing Jerusalem will break any pre-existing alliance you have with other parties, such as the Almoravid Moors. Jerusalem is a fine area. It does not have much resources, but as the home of the Holy Selpuchre, it allows you to collect tribute from pilgrim trains. Although it has been lost to Byzantium for two centuries, the rowdy conditions in the Middle East could mean that you could retake it if you could muster the manpower required. However, any capture of Jerusalem is guaranteed to result in a holy war either between Muslims or Christians. It would nevertheless, be better to capture Jerusalem for yourself, as should the Muslims take Jerusalem, it will definitely invite much-abhorred intervention from their German counterparts, who are eager to carve out new eastern empires of their own much to Byzantium's cost. There are several factions which might possibly be of worth as allies. Asturias and France are rather distant, and equal contenders for the Italian peninsula. Play them off against one another, and you may stand to gain great rewards. To the distant north and east lie the barbarian Russians, Chinese and Mongols. Perhaps an alliance with either one of them may be of use, but as regards to a quick conquest it might be difficult — neither side is close enough to lend armies to allow for quick overruns of barbarian regions. 70px|center CtW Objectives *Accumulate 1,000 tribute and conquer 21 territories, including your sphere of influence as well as the following territories: Latium and Jerusalem *Secondary objectives **Capture and hold Jerusalem before the Castle Age to forestall any possibility of Catholic intervention in the event of a holy war with the Muslims; control of Jerusalem is vital for gaining support of other Christian nations **Annex Italia, Iberia, and Africa for a very interesting easter egg ;) Initial startup *Territories: Bosporus (level 5); Trebizond (level 2); Morea (level 2; silk; +1 army); Cappadocia (level 1; horses); Edessa (level 1); Crete (level 1; fish; +1 army); Cyprus (level 1; sugar) *Allies: Russians, Venice *Vassals: Armenia *Enemies: Sicily, Saracens, Turks, Bulgars *file:tribute.png: 70 *file:bonus.png: Treachery Sphere of Influence *Italia: all territories *Western Asia: **Azerbaijan **Kartvelia **Hayasdan **Trebizond **Kordestan **Edessa **Bosporus **Thessaly **Cappadocia **Levant **Morea **Jerusalem **Cyprus **Crete *Sclavonia and Danubia: **Thrace **Wallachia **Dalmatia **Balkans Category:CtW